Surfing in Mexico in December

December completes the flip. The Pacific has returned to north and north-west swell, Oaxaca is out of season for the next four months, and Sayulita is where the country works again.

What changes this year compared to January is who else is there. Sayulita is the least remote surf town on either Mexican coast and the easiest one to bring somebody who does not surf, which in December means cobbled streets full of people, restaurants booked, and a point that has a queue on it for the first time since spring.

The water has come off its October high to 26°C on the north coast, against 28°C in Oaxaca, and the gap keeps widening until March. December is the last comfortable month before Nayarit becomes the cooler of the two by a margin anybody notices.

Learning in December

For learning : Very good

Good, and busy. The winter swell is a manageable size and every school in Sayulita is working, which is the trade for the crowd.

Where a beginner goes in December

These spots are reachable all year. What the month changes is the size of the waves, not the access.

Carrizalillo
Puerto EscondidoBeginner

For an experienced surfer

Surf : Very good

The northern season restarting under holiday conditions. Come back in February for the same waves without the town.

How December compares

All twelve months, side by side

Where these figures come from

Air, rain and sunshine: WMO / NOAA 1991-2020 normals for Agadir Al Massira, a station some twenty kilometres inland and so a little warmer than the coast in summer. Swell, period and share of workable wind: Swell Archive and surf-forecast. Water temperature: seatemperature.org and weather-and-climate. Crowds and prices are an editorial judgement, not a measurement.